Posted in News on May 29, 2002.
Player assessment by Muhsin Ertugral
Rowen Fernandez
Looking at the last couple of games he played I think he has displayed a degree of confidence. He got more and more confident with each game but it was not easy for him to play under pressure from our supporters.
He is developing into a classy keeper and I believe next season competition is going to be really tough. I can’t say who is going to be the number one keeper as you could see in Brian’s last performance against Pirates, he was brilliant because of this competition. And nobody has a guarantee to be the number one keeper next season.
We will decide when the season starts and I am very happy that we have two classy keepers in the country.
Aubrey Mathibe is still young. He is like a cat and he needs a little bit of guidance and in the next three of four years he might be ready to replace both Brian and Rowen.
Rodney Thobejane
The problem with Rodney was that he is a total man-marker and as you know we play a zonal marking system and it was difficult for him to adjust. He still has problems adjusting but from the games that he has played you could see he played with his heart showing great commitment. But the positive thing is that he has age on his side and we are trying hard to help him understand our system.
David Kannemeyer
I am not totally happy with his prospects when he joined us from Ajax. He came with high references but the most important thing you have to understand is that these teams where they came from, they play three or four good games per season and the rest nobody had the attention on them. Most of these teams play in front of 500 hundred supporters and there’s no pressure but at Chiefs it’s different.
Every game at Chiefs has pressure and these players have to adjust to that mentally and physically. I understand the player might not be happy but that is due to the fact that he is not performing well.
The problem that most Ajax players, not only Ajax South Africa but also Ajax Amsterdam, have is that they take time to adjust to the new system. If you look back to the beginning of the 1990s, Ajax had world-class players but when they went somewhere else they did not make it. You look at a player like Clarence Seedorf sometimes he is not playing as he is battling to adjust to other systems.
David is still young and if he understands what we expect him to do and the tactical approach to every game I think he will make it. If he doesn’t make we’ll see. We might have to release him.
His arrival hasn’t created that much of a competition on the left as we had expected. To me Marco is still one of the best defenders in the country. David is offensively very good but defensively he battles and the two of them complement each other.
Stanton Fredericks
I have to a bit critical here Stanton looks like a good player. He is a good player and has the potential to be a top class player but the problem is that he tends to lose too much possession sometimes and this leaves us exposed to counter-attacking by the opposition.
Stanton likes to go much in one-on-one situations and he loses a lot of balls in the middle and this is not good for the team. But he has the potential to be a class player and we are busy working on his weaknesses, he knows his mistakes but it’s a process to get these old habits out.
Stanton is a multi player, he likes going forward and he has a good tactical approach to the game and I believe that he is improving in his tactical awareness. You remember he used to say he was restricted by Wits but with us there are not restrictions for him when he has to go forward somebody must just lock him and that suits his game well.
Rene Richards
Still fresh from the first division and he has a taste of what it’s like to be in the premier division. He got a lot of experience in the Mandela Cup. I remember that game against Ajax at home where he had a marvelous game but dropped a little bit in form. That’s just normal for a number of youngsters but next season I think he is going to be one of our main asserts.
Rene is a cleaver boy who has handled the pressure very well and he has adapted in every department.
Jossias Macamo
He is a type of player I am still trying to understand and make him aware that today’s game is not only about going forward it is also about locking the zones. For the zonal system you need every player when you lose possession to cover certain zones.
It seems to me that he has problems in a way in that after losing the ball he is still running behind the man and opening that special zone where he should be and the ball is driving from that side in. I remember in the game against SuperSport I had to take him out after 15 minutes because he gave us unbelievable problems.
Jossias has to understand that what he does for the Mozambique national team is not what we expect him to do at Kaizer Chiefs. But he has great potential and we just have to be patient with him. He is young and I think he will adapt next season a little bit better than this season.
Kenny Niemach
When Kenny came to us he was very focused and concentrated. The problem at the moment is that we use a certain structure and have players who can attack from the wings and we are not a centre forward-attacking team like Pirates.
Kenny is a player who wants to be involved as a striker and during build-ups. These are old habits he is battling to get rid of. He knows his mistakes and where he has to improve. What I like about Kenny is that he is a very committed player and hard-working and I believe if he can understand that he only needs to be involved at certain times during the game, this will help him to score many goals.
Phumlani Mkhize
Phumlani battle with a number of injuries at first and when he came here he was totally unfit. He was also not happy with his performance and we were also not happy with him. As I said about Kenny, he also needs to be involved in build-ups and positional ball playing.
Players like Jabu Pule, Thabo Mooki, Patrick Mbuthu and Stanton Fredericks are positional ball players and Phumlani has to understand that he has to be like a hunter in the box and they have to understand that but as long as they do not understand that we will always have problems upfront. As soon as they understand that it will suit their game and our system.
Richard Lishivha
He came from a former MTN League team where he had scored around 25 goals in that season. He has the potential but the biggest problem Richards has is speed and for Kaizer Chiefs every player must have pace otherwise he will have problems and that is the reason we had to let him go. He is capable of turning things around but his speed let him down.
Tenashe Mangomasha
Tenashe a good prospect from the Zimbabwean national under-23. He reminds me of Mohammed Auseb. But he is still too young and any high expectations on him could be suicidal. We have to take it easy on the boy until he is well established. I see him coming through as one of the main players in our team in the near future.
Kelvin Mushangazhike
Kelvin is another great prospect from the Zimbabwean national under-23 and he sometimes reminds me of Jabu and Siyabonga. He is in a way a mixture of both these players. What he doesn’t have is power as he tends to break in the middle sometimes.
As soon as he gets his power right and his endurance I think he is going to be something in this country.
Get the latest copy of Amakhosi magazine to find out more about players who will be offloaded.
